
The Rival's Enemy
A Runaway Bride, Friends-to-Lovers Slow Burn Contemporary RomanceBy Emmy SuttonLength8h 50m
About this audiobook
At the Harvest Moon Festival, Leo Carver is arguing with his brother about what a bottle is worth while, across the square, the competition pours samples for a crowd three deep.
Declan O'Shea has been in Dry Creek Valley four years and already has a following. Leo calls it a cheat code: his father's distribution network, his grandmother's land, and a consultant who used to work for Harlan Estate. Nate calls it better wine, and reminds Leo he admitted as much himself at two in the morning after tasting Declan's Syrah at the county fair.
Carver Vineyard has been bailing with a thimble for three years. The trellises are rotting. The bank is calling. If they lose the distribution contract, the loan payment in November does not happen.
Then Leo's mother sways in the yard and her knees buckle, and a messenger hands him a certified letter from the Sonoma County Water Agency. Carver's water rights are being challenged over a historical boundary dispute with the adjacent property owner. The adjacent property owner is O'Shea Vineyards. There are two ways out: legal proceedings, or a merger of the affected properties.
He has twenty-four hours to decide.
What Leo cannot see is Declan on the other side of the valley, palm flat against a mirror, rehearsing a speech for a grandmother of eighty-three who reads his mood in the tempo of her walking stick, because he has spent his whole life being the salesman and wants, once, to be the winemaker.
The merger closes in sixty days. There is an organic conversion clause his mother signed without telling him. A five-thousand-dollar bet against the merger turns up, placed from an account with Leo's name on it. An irrigation line turns up cut. And somewhere between the audits and the accusations, on a porch in the fog, Leo kisses him back and then asks for seven days of pretending it never happened.
This is a slow-burn contemporary romance between two men who want the same valley and the same water, with the vineyard business rendered in real detail and a family that is not being straight with either of them. The romance is closed-door.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance, Biography and Memoir
Length8 hrs 50 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
2Chapter 1 - The Lie I Built My Life On
3Chapter 2 - The Ghost I’ll Never Outrun
4Chapter 3 - The Door I Swore I’d Never Open
5Chapter 4 - The Scars We Share
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6Chapter 5 - The Hardest Yes
7Chapter 6 - The Price of Legacy
8Chapter 7 - The Perfect Impossibility
9Chapter 8 - The Fracture
10Chapter 9 - The Longest Night
11Chapter 10 - The First Crack
12Chapter 11 - The Thief in the Vines
13Chapter 12 - The Ashes We Hold
14Chapter 13 - The Weight of Roots
15Chapter 14 - The Bargain We Make
16Chapter 15 - The Festival Begins
17Chapter 16 - The Poison of Rumors
18Chapter 17 - The Hospital Wait
19Chapter 18 - The Cost of Love
20Chapter 19 - The Fallout
21Chapter 20 - The Rebuilding
22Chapter 21 - The Offer
23Chapter 22 - The Runaway
24Chapter 23 - The Final Push
25Chapter 24 - The Aftermath
26Chapter 25 - The New Label
27Chapter 26 - The Olive Branch
28Chapter 27 - The Vintage We Poured Together
29About the Author
30The End
31About the Author
32Also by Emmy Sutton
33Acknowledgements
34A Note from the Author